Aug 25 Fri
Poverty was not created by God. We have caused it, you and I through our egotism.
Being unwanted, being unloved, being uncared for, being forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than that of the person who has nothing to eat.
[Interview with Mother Teresa of Calcutta:]
Q. What did you do this morning?
- Pray.
Q. When did you start?
- Half past four.
Q. And after prayer?
- We try to pray through our work by doing it with Jesus, for Jesus, to Jesus. That helps us put our whole heart and soul into doing it. The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved –they are Jesus in disguise.
Q. Does the fact that you are a woman make your message more understandable?
- I never think like that.
Q. Humble as you are, it must be an extraordinary thing to be a vehicle of God’s grace in the world.
- But it is his work. I think God wants to show his greatness by using nothingness.
Q. You feel you have no special qualities?
- I don’t think so. I don’t claim anything of the work. It is God’s work. I am like a little pencil in his hand. That is all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used. In human terms, the success of our work should not have happened, no?
Q. What is God’s greatest gift to you?
- The poor people.
Q. How are they a gift to you?
- I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus.
Q. What are your plans for the future?
- I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. We have only today to love Jesus.
Q. And the future of the order?
- It is His concern. (Time, December 4, 1989, pp. 48-49)
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